1. Field
The present invention relates to computer-controlled biological instrumentation, and in particular to controlling information flow to and from biological instruments.
2. Description of the Related Art
Biological laboratories, in particular those focused on genetic and molecular biological work, employ a wide variety of instrumentation in order to perform experiments and analysis. A given test, or assay, may require, as an example, the use of an electrophoresis component, a thermalcycler component, a mass spectroscopy, and/or a gene sequencer. To further complicate matters, some assays require the manipulation of hundreds if not thousands of separate physical samples, each of which is desirably processed through a complex battery of tests, the collected data from which must then be analyzed by secondary analytical instrumentation before creating the intended result. In addition, the physical and logistical demands of the laboratory increasingly require the use of robotics as well as human participants in order to locate and deliver samples to the proper instrumentation.
The necessary complexity of the laboratory situation is worsened further by the difficult nature of communication. Each instrument, robot, and hardware or software application has input and output parameters/information which must be properly configured in order to be utilized. This may include experiment(al) parameters, commands, or catalog information. Unfortunately, because not all biological instruments were designed to communicate with each other, human intervention is frequently required to coordinate the activities of each instrument. Normally, a centralized information flow control system would be desirable in order to reduce human requirements and errors. However, because a particular laboratory environment may contain many different instruments, produced by different manufacturers and with different requirements, it is difficult to integrate instruments as they exist into a unified system. Furthermore, as new instruments are integrated into the laboratory environment with existing systems, additional difficulties may be encountered due to configuration limitations arising from a previous laboratory setup.